Human Lifestyle

Flutes + Crowns or Fruits + Clowns....However you want to look at this vignette or tableaux. Subtotal of the two = Happy New Year Salutations! With tax = BAD Hangover. {I hope not the latter} And no, I'm not saying we shouldn't pay taxes.

I enjoyed lots of time outside in the garden today, turned a compost heap, tried to mend my large Compostumbler which has rusted through in a couple of places, tidied up a raised bed and assorted other bits in the back.

I did a load of chainsawing too, in the front. And built a bit of logpile on the right of the front door. And let a neighbour have a wheelbarrow full of logs for their chimenea or whatever.

A difficult evening. Went to bed early. I read NewScientist and got up again at 11 when all was peaceful again. I filled two 700g peanut butter jars with dried apple rings and one with pear slices, plus a smaller jar with pear slices. I jarred up all the quartered and dried kiwi fruit, one 700r peanut butter jar managed to get 29 kiwi fruit in, that is 116 quarter portions! Then I re-arranged the bananas I'd done in the last day or two onto the bottom rack (36 of them) and peeled and prepared and placed very carefully another 48 bananas on racks for drying over the next 24/36 hours. By then, the older ones will be ready for their jars, and I'll move the current fresh ones down onto the lower rack. It's a slow production line, keeping fruit out of landfill and out of my compost heaps... and into my muesli and into the tummies of quite a few of my friends and relatives!

The whole family were together on the stroke of midnight but I wasn't in a celebratory mood. It was civil and sober. In fact, this must be one of the first New Years for some while when I haven't had anything to drink.

Happy New Year all! Let's hope it's one where the majority take on board the importance of conserving resources, polluting less, living more simply and being nice to each other. In particular, I'd like ordinary people to get the 10:10 message. I see this as a crucial year. Certainly a crucial decade.

My work day was jammer-rood {full}. I think I'll have a seat on my make believe french-like sofa, and reflect on what New Life is croppin up around here...

A lovely day, back to my usual bouncy self. A late start... due to my going to bed after 3am.

Boys and Gill also up late and we all had a lazy morning.

Gill popped into town and I got a message from my friend Caroline inviting me to let her have some of my compost... I was only too happy to oblige! I loaded my trailer up and went to the allotments where she was planting an apple tree. I'm giving up my allotment as I just haven't had a chance to keep it properly, and it needs to go to someone who has more time and more of a need for it. But our garden should be a bit more usable next year as the raised bed area has now got the big nearby hedge removed and this will mean more stuff can be grown in the raised beds... hopefully!

I then visited Country Fresh and chatted with Richard and came home with 2 sacks of compostables, including a whole load of sad Primula plants in pots which might be rescuable.

Had a use it all up evening meal and a reasonably peaceful evening. I watched the Channel 4 programme with stories and videos from the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, which was both fascinating and disturbing.

Later, I jarred up a load of dried pears and put yet more bananas to dry.

A better day, mood wise, and after lunch was able to get out and visit Country Fresh for two sacks of compostables and then to Freshways who also had done a clear out and had frost-damaged cucumbers for me (two boxes) and 2 sacks of mixed stuff. They also invited me to take two boxes of bananas which are darkened by the cold, but the fruit itself is perfect within. I hadn't got room on my trailer.

Then to the Co-op to do general shopping and had a nice chat with Maria. They had no soya milk in the fresh milk section. (We're just out of it; need to do another SUMA order) Came home and Gill asked me if they'd got any long life soya milk, so I cycled back and yes, they did have, so I bought three different types to see which one (if any) we like!

Then on to Freshways again and they gave me the frost-tinged bananas... so many! What am I going to do with them? I haven't space to dry them all, and the racks are full of kiwis! I put a message on facebook and considered freecycle. I cycled round to Bob's but he wasn't there, although one of his housemates was, and he took two bunches. Deb took two as well, but I'm still left with two big boxes worth, probably 100 hands between them. I ought to rig up some racks hanging off the crockery shelf which goes all around the room.

The Facebook message got several results... I'll be able to offload quite a few and I got literally dozens of recipes and ideas about how to use them.

A lovely evening... had a real game of Scrabble with Gill and listened to Sting on the telly playing some nice tunes from Newcastle and the North East, peeled bananas to dry on the stove and shelled pumpkin seeds, these still from 2008! I wish I could find a little 'kitchen sized' hand-operated pumpkin seed cleaner, which removes the crunchy outer shell and leaves the succulent seed in the middle. I'm currently doing them by hand. I looked on Google for these machines and all of them are kitchen sized... literally, as big as a room!

So, a good day. Thankfully!

Sunday I had a charming dinner that lasted till midnight. Didn't took pictures we were with seven at the table. Eating at my friend Denis place is always fantastic, the rooms are then only lighted by candlelight. Here are some pictures so you can imagine the atmosphere. The plates and the glasses come from the Tuileries in Paris, I think not a lot of people can say that eat from that kind of plates ;-) He has a whole set, but on the pictures the table was only set for two people.

A far from easy day. I needed to find the Christmas Day Fiddlesticks paperwork and that took ages and then I had a phone call with my agent which was difficult.

I got outside after lunch and finished the logpile to the left of the front door, and sorted out some other woody stuff. Later in the day I had an important email to do and that was difficult too.

I spent lots of time playing Scrabble on facebook and doing thing around the house but felt not 100% today. Hope tomorrow will be better.

I hope you had a few nice Holidays over the weekend.

Another late morning but a peaceful one.

I spent time on LinkedIn, replying to a topic posted on 'The-Green-Group.com' by a guy who's developed a technology which converts 'waste' (his terminology) to 'SynGas', a type of pyrolysis or gasification, a way of heating materials and getting a fuel off them. I am a proponent of materials recycling, keeping plastic as plastic, agricultural wastes as solid carbon (and sequestering it in soil as compost), rather than converting it to something which will power cars or electricity generation... and releasing that carbon into the air. I also feel that having a constant market for these materials, to feed incinerators, will skew the economics for recyclable materials. For instance, (purely hypothetically) if it costs £100 per tonne to take plastic bottles to a recycling plant and render them into a new product, and a 'waste to energy' plant pays £10 a tonne for the same material, which is the local authority more likely to do? I don't have a problem with renewable materials (like agricultural wastes) being used for power generation, and I'm particularly interested in anaerobic digestion, which gives methane or natural gas, plus a digestate which can be composted and added to soils. BUT this can only replace our fossil fuel addiction if we rapidly cut the amount of energy and resources we are consuming. The 'Energy from Waste' proponents just want to replace coal power stations with rubbish powered ones. They are not in the game of radical reduction in energy use, per se. However, many of the people involved are in fact keen greens and support concepts such as permaculture and low carbon technologies.

Interesting discussions and hopefully some mutual awareness raising.

During the afternoon I finally got outside to bring logs from the back up to the front to rebuild the logpile on the left of the door... and we've nearly used all the pile on the right, so hardly any really dry logs left. We've plenty of old dry wood, but it's been outside on pallets and has had a wet winter's worth of rain and snow on it. It will burn, but best if it has a few weeks in the dry first. I'm stacking some round the stoves to flash-dry them... although this process reduces the warmth coming into the room somewhat, as the heat on the damp logs is used to evaporate moisture, not left as 'free' heat.

I had rescued a tray of slightly shriveled kiwi fruit from one of the shops before Christmas and today I managed to peel and slice quite a few of them to dry. I did 5 for a fruit salad and about 20 on racks on the stove. I helped Gill prepare the meal... rice and assorted veg, roast Turk's turban squash, and some felafel.

I watched a very interesting programme about how people who were affected by the tsunami felt about their faith. Despite my being an agnostic, I'm really interested in what people believe and why. This programme was good as some had come through the event without questioning God, some had questioned their faith, one person who had lost their entire family said she hated God for doing it. There were some who blamed 'Karma' for the loss of innocent lives... it was fascinating.

I got a phone call from my sister which was most welcome. I am so lucky to have the support of my siblings. They both have very different qualities and attributes, and I'm grateful for them both being in my life, and supportive and loving.

I had a long facebook instant messaging chat with a friend in Germany who is going through some difficult times. It feels good to be able to offer some support there.

Distance: 8 miles round trip
Elevation: 6,800 ft - 7,900 ft
Elevation Gain: 1,000 ft net, 1,300 ft cumulative
Dog: On leash while in the park, off leash outside of it


The Pine Valley Loop is not in anyone's guide book, but it is dog friendly, winds through interesting terrain, and is close to Denver. Like the Gashouse Gulch-Baldy Trail, its topography is dominated by the burnt out remains of a major fire, in this case the year 2000 High Meadows Fire. At times the landscape is stark and foreboding and at other times, with the help of a little snow on the ground, it is serene and filled with abstract images. Since the elevation is relatively low, it is a great shoulder season hike. We did it on Thanksgiving day and there was a little too much snow on the ground, which made for some slippery descents. Snow this early is unusual, however.

The Pine Valley Loop hike is actually a series of five trails, the Pine Lake Loop in the Pine Valley Ranch Open Space Park, the Buck Gulch Trail, the Skipper Trail, the Strawberry Jack Trail, and the Park View Trail (again in Pine Valley Ranch). You can take this route in either direction, but going counter clockwise (the Buck Gulch side) means you'll come down the view laden Park View Trail at the end.

If taken counter clockwise, the loop starts out on the short Pine Lake Loop (0.4 miles from the parking lot), which travels next to the pleasant, can you guess it...Pine Lake. This segment is in the Pine Valley Ranch Park. At the far end of the lake in an intersection with the Buck Gulch Trail.


The Buck Gulch trail departs to the left and heads immediately up hill for 3 miles and 1,000 ft of elevation gain. As it ascends, the trail winds in and out of the park until it finally departs all together. At this point the dogs are allowed to roam free. The trail is open, even in the unburned areas, with pleasant views to the east. At the end of the trail is a small kiosk and parking area. This is the intersection with the Skipper Trail, which heads to the east. It is also the highest point of the loop at 7,900 ft.


The Skipper Trail starts out in a unburned portion of the forest, and it large Ponderosa Pines provide a hint of what the area used to be like. Only 1.2 miles long, the trail descends 250 ft but regains 100 ft of that before it dead ends into a 3-way intersection with the Homestead Trail that heads southeast and the Strawberry Jack trail which heads north.


The Strawberry Jack trail travels 2.2 miles before the intersection with the Park View Trail. It winds primarily downwards through large rock formations. We stopped to eat lunch on one pile with views in all directions. In the dead of summer this spot would be a broiler, but on a mild November day it was delightful.

There are two options for final pitch back to the car, the Park View Trail or a continuation of the Strawberry Jack Trail. The latter ends up back on the Buck Gulch trail so you repeat some of the route. The Park View Trail is totally unique and has amazing views of the Pine Valley Ranch Park and lake. On most days this is recommended. On the day we did it, it was so slick with ice, we finally resorted to glaceed down on our tushes.


Some people find hiking through burn areas to be either unappealing or downright disturbing. I disagree. Seeing how nature springs back from a burn is an interesting lecture in ecology and the realization that this process is slow is a moral tale we can all benefit from. Colorado is particularly prone to fire and many of the more recent ones have been caused by arson. Only by walking through these areas do we remember these events. The headlines disappear far too quickly.

We both woke late, which wasn't good as we were expecting visitors and had to tidy up one of the rooms to make it presentable... I whizzed the soup and chopped up a Turk's Turban squash and microwaved it before roasting it in the oven.

Then at midday, my younger brother Tom, his wife Kate, her mum Jenny and three children arrived; we were a bit flustered but soon calmed down and made coffees and chatted, then warmed the soup and rolls, and served the with slices of roast squash. This seemed to be reasonably received.

We had a bit more chat and then Tom wanted to visit York centre, as Jenny hasn't seen it for 10 years and that was her first visit... so the visitors piled into the car and I went with them, we drove to the Monkgate car park and I took them to the Minster, where we looked at the roof bosses designed by Blue Peter viewers and tried to find the oldest tomb... then out to Stonegate where were entertained by my friend who's name might be Michael Mime, or purpleman, who was doing his cyclist 'statue' and for a donation in the tin, offers to paint the donor's hair purple.

From there we looked briefly into Barley Hall, walked down The Shambles and into Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate and then to the Anti Gravity shop, where Martin was only too happy to shop the children some of his awesome 'Yoyo Monster' tricks. Then back to Monkgate and Tom gave me a lift back to Hull Road as he was going this way back to Sheffield anyway... A lovely visit, I really enjoyed seeing them.

A large pile of washing up faced me when I got back home but I ploughed through it bit by bit whilst playing Scrabble on facebook, blogging, persuading the children to go to bed and encouraging Gill with her lovely arty doodles!

Here I present one of the many brussels little pearls. It has been build to remember the constitution of Belgium and is now used as the rest place of the unknown soldier.

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you all are enjoying this day with your families, whether you're somewhere like this,

Both the children slept downstairs because of the coldness of the house, so I don't know what time they woke up as it didn't disturb me! I woke slowly at 9.30 and came down and both were happily ensconced on the computer, and didn't open their presents til after 10am. I was pleased to get a NewScientist book 'How to Fossilise Your Hamster' and a relative had given me a bottle of red wine... as usual... and I don't drink red wine, hardly ever. I do use it in cooking though...

An hour later I was getting ready to go to work down at the Novotel, just an hour or two of Professor Fiddlesticks, no Father Christmas this year, due to a mistake by the hotel, it seems.

I cycled down in costume, and was immediately surrounded by people gathering for their Xmas lunch, happy to be entertained. I did some circus workshops and balloon modelling... and met the 'impostor', a nice young chap called Andrew who did some close-up magic. He told me he'd never done Father Christmas before; I wished him the best of luck!

So I did a continuous stint from 11.45 til 2pm... had a lovely, fun but full-on time. I came back via Freshways, who open every day... as they are Muslim, they open on Christmas day too, as it's not a holiday for them. I bought batteries for our youngest who has had a K-NEX present which has a motor... but no batteries. They gave me a box of unsold mini-aubergines, which look very much like they'll make a good meal tomorrow, a moussaka probably.

I got changed and watched The Queen's Speech before going into the garden and sorting some of the accumulated compostables into several of my 'dalek' bins. I got very cold, and when it got too dark to do more compost heap building, I took some dry logs to the front of the house so I can start to rebuild the severely depleted front-door logpile tomorrow.

So, warmed up, helped Gill in the kitchen, watched a few minutes of Happy Feet which our youngest was enjoying, and then 'The Gruffalo' which is a book I don't know but I enjoyed the TV version!

We got a phone call from my little brother who is coming over from Sheffield tomorrow with his family, and we had to decide whether to meet up in town and eat out, or to come here and have food at home. Neither of our boys fancied going into town so we rang back and said to come here. So then Gill and I got busy making chunky vegetable soup...

I also sorted out a large pile of pears, definitely in a state where they couldn't be sold, but I tidied them up and got them drying on the stove!

Yesterday I saw a very nice slide show in the New York Post. Off course most of the times there are always beautiful, but this time my attention was more taken than usual.